Mercy Me

by David McDonald

I was born in 1950, without my dad’s last name

My stepdad roasted in the oil fields, while I played in the rain

And I was thinking, while I was leaving, when I was 17

About the time I cut my brother, left him with that scar you see

You see I learned to fight I learned to kill I learned it on my hands

My brother beat me in the morning when I could not get away

And he’d chase me through the yard and field was the fastest in the land

Won the relay 1968 in Texas Levelland

Oh oh oh come on home that old six shooter is singing son and I’m hear all alone

Oh oh on mercy me when you died I didn’t see

And I was cornered in the woodshed fearin for my life 

When Pat he took a ballpeen hammer and I grabbed a hunting knife

And we tore all through that woodshed, kicked them tools off the wall

And I knew grandad would beat us had a system for them all

And he took that knife away from me and he tied me to a chair

Pulled the pistol from his pocket laid the barrel in my hair 

And said oh boy you’ve done it this time you’ll never sleep again

And then he blasted out that window before he let it sing again

CHORUS

Now hear I am at 60 with all that I can bear

My family’s livin with me and I take some comfort there

But I never learned to drop it oh boy I’m mad as hell

In my dreams I hold a shotgun and I wield it very well

Yeah I’m haunted by my anger and my days fly by like rain

And I can’t tell the stories from the hair that clogs my drain

And now I own that pistol that he laid to my head before he turned it on himself

And gave the last words that he said